For those of you still getting “Disney AGAIN!???” I just wanted to share some passenger ratings from Conde Nast 2026 in which Disney stacks up very well against some highly-regarded lines:
The areas where DCL gets penalized by Consumer Reports are: Value for price paid, Food quality and variety, Excursions, price transparency, and app usefulness, which I can’t argue with, but 5/5 points in Customer service, Onboard activities and entertainment, cleanliness, cabin comfort, embarkation/debarkation, disability access, and family programming.
There may also be a halo effect from ratings by Disney Cult members, of which there are a few.
I didn’t see them provide the methodology, but in general, reader’s choice is the most unscientific way to judge. What criteria did they use? Also, people tend to bring biases into their ratings…like, because they love Disney or know that supposedly Disney is supposed to be good, they get ranked higher even if the experience is the same or worse in practice.
There was a study done years ago demonstrating this with autos. The Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix were the same exact car, other than the external styling (sheet metal). Both went down the exact same assembly line and the exact same parts. Yet, the Matrix was rated more highly. For a few reasons, one of which was that drivers who bought Toyotas felt loyal to the brand in a way Pontiac owners did not. But in practice, both cars had the same numbers of actual issues.
I didn’t see methodology mentioned in my quick glance. But I had to smile bc I am thinking the average Conde Nast readers’ choice participant is a skewed population.
I love to cruise. I love to talk about cruising. I’m happy for the only DCL crowd continuing their voyages bc I have directly benefit from DCL expanding their number of ships.
I will happily take my #10 Large Ship and #20 Medium Ship voyages. I would like to try an MSC and a Celebrity. About the only line I am not interested in is Virgin bc I have kids to travel with. Eventually maybe. And I do want to do a DCL Dream or Fantasy soonish - maybe 2027. But next up is a reimagined Costa ship that is now a Carnival ship, sans the whale tail.
The latest ratings were published in their magazine on January 5, 2026. This is the fine print on their ratings website:
Guide to the ratings: Ratings are based on a sample of 18,850 CR members who told us about their most recent experience on an ocean cruise in the past 36 months. Overall satisfaction score is derived from the respondents’ ratings of satisfaction with the value for price paid, quality and variety of the food, customer service, on-shore excursions run by the cruise company, on-board activities and entertainment, and our CR Consumer Experience Score (not included in the ratings table). Attribute ratings reflect mean scores for each cruise line on scales that range from Completely Dissatisfied to Completely Satisfied. Dashes (-) indicate insufficient sample size to provide a rating.
I think that this aligns with many of the points made above. I think certain lines attract more/less discerning customers. There may be more scrutiny for lines with a certain reputation.
